2026 Cook County Budget Meetings: Budget Overview and Offices under the President

Cook County Board Finance Committee Meeting
October 27, 2025

Bureau of Finance/ Budget Overview
Proposed 2026 Budget:  $10.01 Billion    Proposed 2026 Positions:            23.624.2
Actual 2025 Budget:       $  9.94 Billion    Actual 2025 Approved Positions: 23,541.5
Difference:           +$ 0.07 Billion    Difference:                       +82.7

General Fund (GF)

• Proposed Fiscal Year 2026 GF expenditures is $2.67B and includes closing the preliminary budget gap of $102.6M
• 83 FTE increase proposed; 64% of budget is allocated to payroll and benefit expenses
• Revenue, including Sales Tax, State subsidy, and $30M of Chicago TIF revenue, are expected to increase despite decreased property tax allocation to GF (more $ to Cook County Health and Election Fund)
• Starting to receive notice of Federal grants being reduced or eliminated;  Department of Energy grant of $2.1 M and $1.7M Emergency Management and Regional Security grant 
• Commissioner Miller recommended that all contracts over $5 M include a penalty for underperformance 

Health Enterprise Fund (Commissioners were generally asked to direct their questions on this Fund to Cook County Health during its Budget meeting)

• Closed preliminary budget gap of $108.8M through re-forecasting revenues and 10% expense reductions
• 110 FTE increase proposed to absorb existing positions from ARPA programs, from some programs previously covered by Special Purpose Funds, and grants
• Federal grants $315M appropriated, mostly over several years

Special Purpose Funds – some of the major funds and expenditures include

• $33.5M allocated to Equity Fund per the  FY2026 Fourth Installment Plan recently approved by the Board: no additional revenues to be allocated in FY2026
• Opioid Remediation and Abatement fund - $4M
• Infrastructure and Equipment: $15M for solar panels ($40M total in 2025-2029) expected to bring $18M rebate from Federal Government when completed
• $4.6M to procure new digital evidence management solution
• $65M allocated to a newly created Grant Risk Mitigation Fund from unspent 2025 monies.  This is to be used in the event of a loss of federal grant funds

The County is also looking to continue to fund 11 programs beyond 2026 that have been funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) through 2026.  Plans are to fund fully in 2027 and then either reduce funding and the scope of the programs or find other sources to continue to fully fund.

Offices under the President
Proposed 2026 Budget:  $1.718 Billion    Proposed 2026 Positions:                2,075.1
Actual 2025 Budget:       $1.830 Billion    Actual 2025 Approved Positions:     2,063.1
Difference:                     ($0.112 Billion)    Difference:                 +12.0 

Overview

• Total budget is 14.9% of County’s total budget of $10.01B
• Funding Sources: Special Purpose, Capital, General Funds and Grants

General Fund

• $283.9M, 74.7% for 2,075 FTEs’ salary/benefits, increase of 12 FTEs 
• Reduced vacancy rate by 6.2% in FY2025 (currently 16.2%)

​Observer - Sue Gregory